A photo of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt seemingly kissing is 100 percent fake. Tabloids are using this photoshop creation to trick readers into believing the exes are back together when they are not. Gossip Cop can explain what’s shamefully going on.

Last week, Starpublished what it touted as a “world exclusive.” As seen in the gallery below, the cover of the tabloid featured what appeared to be a paparazzi picture of the former spouses mid-smooch. The photo was being used by the gossip magazine to sell a narrative about Pitt and Aniston being “back on.” But as Gossip Cop reported, nothing was real about the picture or the article itself. Not only weren’t Aniston and Pitt back together, but they also weren’t photographed together in an embrace.

In actuality, the outlet deceptively took years-old separate pictures of Aniston and Pitt and digitally edited them together. The snapshot of Pitt is really from 2010, and it was taken on a film set in Budapest. The woman he is really kissing in the original photo is Angelina Jolie. In fact, it is her hand on Pitt’s shoulder that appears in the image on the cover of Star. The publication, however, manipulated the rest of the picture to make readers think it is Aniston whom Pitt is kissing when it was really Jolie.

But to dupe readers into thinking Aniston was Pitt’s kissing partner, the tabloid took a 2009 picture of Aniston kissing Jason Bateman as they filmed The Switch. To pull off the photo manipulation, the magazine darkened Aniston’s appearance and removed all evidence of Bateman from the frame to combine the image with the aforementioned snapshot of Pitt. To recap: A 2009 photo of Aniston and a 2010 photo of Pitt were put together to falsely allege the pair were caught kissing in 2018. The outlet created this fabrication just to sell copies of its new issue.

To make matters worse, a number of other publications are now following suit. As seen below, Woman’s Day Australiais using the fake photo for its latest cover story, which is a lie about Pitt and Aniston being “out of hiding.” There’s even a fabricated quote for the headline inside the issue: “Why We Can’t Hide Our Love Anymore.” Neither Pitt nor Aniston ever made such a declaration. And just like Star conveniently omitted just where and when the purported kissing photo was taken, this tabloid tellingly fails to provide such key information, too.

Then there’s New Idea, which is using the photoshopped picture to assert Pitt and Aniston were “caught out” together. This piece also doesn’t mention exactly when and where they supposedly seen, but cites a so-called “insider,” who laughably predicts, “This photo will break Ange’s heart for sure.” Of course, Jolie has no reason to be heartbroken. On top of the photo being a fake, Pitt and Aniston are absolutely not dating. As People even reported last month, Aniston hasn’t seen Pitt “in ages.”

Star just wants readers to think otherwise, which is why it went through the trouble of manufacturing a fake photo. Other disreputable magazines have disgracefully decided to do the same. But the truth is readily available for fans themselves to see. The above photo, by the way, is very much a real one. It was taken of Pitt and Aniston when they attended the 2004 Emmys. No fakery needed.